Depressing or Expressing?

It seems to me that the Emo culture is more about emotional expression than depression, hatred and seeing how tight you can get your jeans.

Or maybe some people just like the rhythms and beats of the music?

The Patient

My Chemical Romance is probably one of the first bands that come to mind when someone mentions the word “Emo”. Yet, ironically, as is the case with many bands labelled “Emo”, the band does not consider itself as such. “Emo is a pile of s***,” Gerard Way, lead singer of My Chemical Romance stated in an interview, claiming that his band “was never emo”.

My Chemical Romance’s album “The Black Parade” is a concept album, centring on a character known as “The Patient”. Dan Martin from “New Musical Express” compared the album to Green Day’s “American Idiot”, stating that “[it] will challenge every preconception you ever had about the people who made it.” Indeed the album challenges every stereotype that the band is a group of self-hating, rebels against society, and expresses an emotionally gripping tale of the tragic death of a cancer patient.

Listeners are introduced to The Patient with “The End”, a sad realisation of the character’s impending death. The following songs focus on his thoughts and fears about death and the memories he has of his life. The single “Welcome to the Black Parade” is a tale of The Patient’s fondest memory, being taken to a parade as a child. The Patient accepts death in “Famous Last Words”, and death comes for him in the form of a parade, an expression of Gerard Way’s belief that death comes for a person in the form of their fondest memory.

I Am Not Emo, I Am Just Me

The website www.emo-corner.com is one which explains what the Emo lifestyle is all about and brings fellow Emo kids together to discuss their thoughts on a variety of issues, from their emotional problems, to their choice of haircut, or even their philosophical opinions as to what Emo actually is.

The website explains that Emo, whilst being a popular genre of music, is more known for its emotional state of mind and defends it to the extent that it is an alternative way of letting your feelings be known. Is this not an emotionally healthy way of thinking?

One viewer talks about her battles with depression and self-harm but strongly urges other readers that this is not what Emo is about. She expresses her idea that Emo is about “being sensitive and expressing how you feel” and urges any fellow viewers who experience suicidal thoughts to seek help and not make the same mistake she did.

Self-harm is often linked to the Emo following as the website explains that Emo poetry generally tends to be emotionally provocative and covers topics that are difficult to discuss with most people. Self-harm and suicide obviously fall into that category, however it is emphasised that suicide is definitely not a theme of Emo culture. Emo is about being able to express who you are, no matter how taboo the subject may be in other genres or cultures.

The website also highlights the importance that Emo poetry serves for the writer, as a form of catharsis and relief.

Cut my wrists and black my eyes

Emo music is often linked to many cases of self-harm and suicide. Many critics argue that the lyrics in songs such as “Ohio is for Lovers” by Hawthorne Heights and Fall Out Boy guitarist Pete Wentz publicly talking about his history of self-harm give off the impression that self-harm is something cool.

A vast majority of Emo kids don’t actually self-harm, and a vast majority of people who self-harm are not Emo. Whilst you will get the occasional kids like Hannah Bond, who hung herself, claiming that self harming is an “emo intiation ceremony” and discussed the “glamour” of hanging online, it is not what Emo music stands for and kids like that clearly had serious mental problems to begin with. The lyrics “Cut my wrists and black my eyes” from “Ohio is for Lovers” and Pete Wentz openly admitting his history of self-harm is not intended to promote it, but is meant to show that celebrities too are human and vulnerable and can experience such overwhelming feelings of self-hatred or suffer from other mental issues. In fact, Taking Back Sunday’s hit single “Cute without the ‘E’ (Cut From the Team)” is a song about the lead singer Adam Lazzara’s battle with Bipolar.

They Said “All Teenagers Scare The Living S*** Out Of Me”

Emo music has been criticised for its male dominance and its tendency to depict women as the heartbreaker, and even purportedly expressing violent anti-women sentiments.

It is beyond argument that many Emo songs are songs about heartbreak and express particularly furious and potentially violent thoughts. See, for example, an excerpt of “Tell That Mick He Just Made My List of Things to Do Today”, a single from Fall Out Boy’s 2003 album “Take this to your Grave”:

‘Let’s play this game called “when you catch fire”
I wouldn’t piss to put you out
Stop burning bridges and drive off of them
So I can forget about you

‘So bury me in memory
His smile’s your rope
So wrap it tight around your throat’

While I will put forward the idea that many songs from other genres are angry, break up songs, I will not argue the particular degrees of hatred some Emo songs do put forward. It is an extreme example, and not all Emo songs about heartbreak are quite so violent. However it can be argued that people who listen to this particular type of music in times of distress and heartbreak use it moreso as a form of therapy rather than a list of ideas for revenge. In fact, Emo music is widely criticised for promoting depression and self-harm, yet I would argue that the more mainstream songs about heartbreak tend to be far more depressing. Some of these so-called “violent” Emo songs actually have a sense of empowerment, by not moping around but by saying “Hey, I was better than you anyway!” Just look at Panic At the Disco’s “Lying is the Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off”:

‘I've got more wit, a better kiss, a hotter touch, a better f***

Than any boy you'll ever meet, sweetie you had me

Girl I was it, look past the sweat, a better love deserving of

Exchanging body heat in the passenger seat?

No, no, no, you know it will always just be me’

Furthermore, it is a gross generalisation that ALL Emo songs are angry songs about heartbreak. Consider songs like “Stolen” by Dashboard Confessional, “Hallelujah” by Paramore, and “Teenagers” by My Chemical Romance.

And the argument that the songs promote violent anti-women sentiments? Look no further than The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ single “Face Down”, which expresses the polar opposite thought:

‘Do you feel like a man when you push her around?

Do you feel better now as she falls to the ground?

Well I'll tell you my friend, one day this world's going to end

as your lies crumble down, a new life she has found.’

With regards to male domination, I won’t argue that in the past, the Emo scene has been dominated by males, focusing on women as the heartbreakers, but recent years have seen the rise of female fronted bands such as Paramore, who no longer portray women as the muse.

A brief history of Emo music

The reason I have chosen to do Emo music for this project is to try gain some understanding into the clientele found loitering outside Hungry Jacks in Brisbane city. Emo seems to not only be a genre of music, but depicts an entire culture, a way of behaving, and a particular style of fashion. The “Emo kid” is generally stereotyped as one who listens to My Chemical Romance, wears black skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors, has an asymmetrical haircut, is particularly rebellious against what society (and their parents) should expect from them, and has generally pessimistic demeanour. However, I will be attempting to find more to this way of life.

Emo music emerged from the hardcore punk scene in the early 1980's in Washington D.C., pioneered by bands such as Rites of Spring and Embrace. Emo music broke away from the hardcore punk scene by using melodic guitars, varied rhythms and deeply personal, impassioned lyrics. Emotional-punk music only really began to spawn its own subculture in the early 1990s. In recent years Emo music has moved away from the punk sound and many bands, such as Panic At the Disco and Death Cab for Cutie, are starting to adopt more electronic elements to their sound.